First Place 01

Well, it’s finally happened and it can be scientifically verified. We have officially done away with God in our country. Now don’t get riled up here about politicians and political correctness and discriminating policies.
Some Christians have given Him up.

According to a Pew Research report just released, (pewforum.org) only 56% of Americans believe in a God who is “a God who loves unconditionally; a God who is omniscient (knows all things) and a God who is omnipotent (is all powerful).” In other words… the God of the Bible. Many others believe there is “a higher power or some being” that is in control of everything, but it is not the God revealed on Sinai and in Jesus Christ.

Sadly, more Christians than ever have slid off the scale in their belief system, and only 75% of believers say that all three (unconditional love, omniscience, and omnipotence) are characteristics of God which means fully one quarter do NOT.

The good news, if there is any in this report, is that people are still trying to believe something (someone) personally is “out there” directing life. Knowing who or what that is, however, seems to escape many.

It could be “the Force” of Star Wars fame. Or maybe “E.T.” and his kind are returning or planning to do so. Or maybe, well, some feel we just can’t know.

The good news is that there is still a void that the Christian world can speak to and has an answer for in people’s lives. That being said, it is also a sad indicator that our message of a personal, knowable God who came in the person of Jesus Christ and died for our sins, is being heard and received and believed by less and less.

I am not surprised by the statistics on a lost world rejecting a personal God. I am saddened and deeply concerned by a self-proclaimed “Christian” who would do the same. God has taken drastic and immeasurably graceful steps to make Himself known to us. “What can be know of God is made plain to them” (Romans 1:19). God doesn’t believe in atheists! There are only those who willfully reject the light they’ve received.

Perhaps it’s time for us to double-down on how we think about God… and make sure it aligns with Scripture. Perhaps it’s time to double-down in how we speak of Him. The light is slowly going out in our culture. The darkness is growing. This survey is simply evidence of that.